Mr President, we have a problem

President Jacob Zuma. A new study highlights high levels of distrust and dissatisfaction with government. Picture: GCIS

Seventy-seven percent of ordinary South Africans think the country is moving in the wrong direction, and that government and President Jacob Zuma are primarily responsible, a new study shows.

Conducted by Ask Afrika and Infusion Knowledge Hub on behalf of The Centre for Communication and Reputation Management at the University of Pretoria, the study conveys the views of adult South Africans about corruption and state capture. Eighty percent of the sample – which is representative of 37 million adult South Africans – focused on poorer communities. The study also assessed satisfaction with political performance.

Speaking at a workshop called The Nation’s Voice on State Capture and Corruption where the results of the study were released, Ask Afrika’s CEO, Andrea Gevers, said where respondents felt South Africa was going in a negative direction, with corrupt government officials, unemployment and high levels of crime cited as reasons.

Nearly 40% said government was responsible while 29% identified President Jacob Zuma as the accountable party.

Source: Centre for Communication and Reputation Management at the University of Pretoria, Ask Afrika and Infusion Knowledge Hub

Only 4.9% felt that citizens were to blame.

Those individuals who believed that South Africa was moving in the right direction (17%), mentioned improved education and RDP housing as reasons. A small percentage (6%) didn’t know or care about the country’s direction.

The study highlighted high levels of distrust and dissatisfaction with the current government. The majority of respondents believed that their basic needs were not being met as a result of state capture and high levels of corruption, but also showed a culture of blind following and apathy, which allowed leadership to get away with underperformance.

When respondents were asked how important it was to follow the lead of political leaders in their own culture, 11% said it was very important and 30% felt it was important.

These were worrying statistics, as it suggested that a large chunk of citizens would still follow their leaders, even if they had the wrong leader, Gevers said.

President Jacob Zuma fared the worst among leaders in government, with 64% of people rating his efficiency as “very badly”.

Source: Centre for Communication and Reputation Management at the University of Pretoria, Ask Afrika and Infusion Knowledge Hub

With regards to a leadership rating, one would ideally want to see more satisfaction, with at least a third to half of the rating classified as “well” and “very well”. However, leaders were rated poorly in the “very well” category across the board, and mainly single-digit percentages of respondents rated their performance as “very well”.

“That is exceedingly low. It is the lowest we’ve ever seen in a study,” Gevers said.

Most South Africans were aware of the concept of corruption, with 89% saying they have heard the term and 99% indicating it was unacceptable. Half the respondents personally knew someone who was corrupt.

Yet, very few respondents were aware of the phrase “state capture” or understood it, but they were alarmed and terrified when it was explained to them, Infusion’s Shamima Vawda said. They saw it as a loss of sovereignty.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they had not heard of “state capture” before, but upon hearing the definition, 68% said it happened in South Africa. Ninety-one percent thought it was unacceptable and said it would change the way people vote.

When asked about the perceived involvement of stakeholders in corruption and state capture, the president and the police were at the top of the list, followed by political parties.

Source: Centre for Communication and Reputation Management at the University of Pretoria, Ask Afrika and Infusion Knowledge Hub

“This tells me that we are ripe for an overhaul,” Gevers said.

Asked what they wanted government to address as soon as possible, respondents said corruption, unemployment and illegal entries into the country.

Sixty-three percent of respondents felt that living conditions had improved after the end of apartheid, 84% classified themselves as proudly South African and 46% chose to be identified as South Africans before any other demographic descriptors such as race, gender, religion or culture.

The study was conducted during the latter part of 2017 in two parts – firstly through ten focus groups in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and later followed up with a computer-aided questionnaire answered by 2 600 adult South Africans.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ingé joined Moneyweb in April 2013. She writes on a variety of topics including tax, markets and investment. She has a Master’s degree in Journalism and a Bachelor of Accounting, both from Stellenbosch University.

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The very reason that the ANC led government keeps people away from education and knowledge is so that they can fill their heads with nonsense and their pockets with menial gifts near to and around election time in order to manipulate the vote in the favor of the ANC. However, the global village is growing at a rapid pace and with the advent of smart phones people are learning facts and educating themselves on current affairs. Beware ANC, your days are numbered.

Those surveyed who know nothing about state capture must be those hand selected and very far from civilization as the average South African knows it. The would be from areas with limited or nom TV services, No WiFi facilities, and they would be people with limited or no skills to be able to read or write. Must be people from far out of the way places with limited or no news inflows to them. If not, then this survey is made up and not true.

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Agree Sweetpea, I was wondering about the “uneducated” majority (those unable to be reached by phone, internet, and other media) tucked away in every corner of SA. These institutions’ research likely reflect only refer to the “educated majority”….mostly in cities/urban areas/townships. Deep rural areas? Doubt it.

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I DISAGREE with the 4,9% of SA Citizens felt they were to blame for the direction SA is in.

Sorry to break it to everyone: THE MAJORITY OF SA’s CITIZENS ARE MOSTLY TO BLAME! Who voted the current party in power? Who voted their leader(s) into power? Who keep on supporting them to remain in power? (Example up north: don’t blame ex-pres Mugabe for Zim’s woes…WHO voted him in originally? Who supported him to retain power? THE PEOPLE did!

In Zim, the people chose their leader…and now they reap the economic struggle.

In SA, the people chose their leader…a decade or three from now, ‘the peoples’ of SA will…resemble the living conditions like a normal African state. SA have never been normal. What makes us so special down here for our past economic fortunes? Most African countries have mineral wealth. All African countries (south of Sahara) share similar work ethics & culture. WHY should SA be different? We still fight the idea that we should be “up there” on the continent. The steady sinking of SA (in every facet of work & life) is NORMAL for any country slowly returning to the “mean average” comparable to any other country south of Sahara. There’s NO other way it can happen sadly…so best to get used to low growth / corruption / crime / socialism…don’t fight it. Tighten your belts…don’t overspend! SA has been beyond it’s Gold-standard heydays of the the 50’s, sixties, – 70’s. Now on a slow downward trajectory…so the “alarming” things were read in the daily news, is manifestation of that. Don’t fear / know the future. Reduce your debt & Rand-hedge with everything you have left!

Everyone seems worried where SA is heading. Don’t be worried / have peace in the knowing. BE POSITIVE, reduce your debt and RAND-hedge with everything you have left! (..when the Rand temporarily improves, time to pile up more rand-hedge investments). Know were SA is going & HAVE PEACE in that. This is not Europe or USA or Oz (sorry I say it)..we like it to be that…counting whites & blacks. If we have the same type of leaders than the rest of continent AND we have the same level of voter education than the rest of continent….WHY should be be more wealthy & different than the rest of Africa in the long run?

So far, we’re still doing Okay in SA…most middle class still live beyond our means / dept to the max / large house, big garden, 2+ cars per family. Better standard of life than many in Europe. This is going to cost us going forward. Beware! (Learn from the recent Greeks) Yes, people in townships will tell me “life is hard”. Have you paid for your RDP-house? The social grants…it comes for free. Govt clinics/hospitals still free. Food still plentiful, despite many hate the farmer. Here we have opportunity to beg in the streets…and others (due to religious values) will give handouts. NONE like that in “true” Africa. The good news is most people in Africa must be HAPPY with life….you see a lot of kids running and smiling when vehicles move by / or visiting any local off-the-beaten-track store.

Only THE PEOPLE can steer SA in the right, economic prosperous direction again (unless the majority is “happy” with status quo). If the people remain largely uneducated, how would they know where the steering-wheel is, of how it looks like, to turn it around??

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this is tatamount to propaganda. All the ills in RSA can not all be blamed on the govt and Mr Zuma.. as we speak nearly 90% of the investors private and intistutional are crying over the Steinhoff bebacle.. and i say 90% me included. The source of this enigma is not the government, its not Mr Zuma but some shenanigans commited by the people running the steinhoff scam. In that organization you have people whom we hold highly like the Wise guy yet he was part of this Stenhoff thing for sometime and all these things happened under their nose. how are these people different from JZ and govt person?)..so collectively as a people we are messed up. Pointing JZ or the goverment without us introspecting too does not make sense to me.. its high time we take a global look at our problems rather than focussing on JZ and the ANC govt alone. Look at KPMG, and all the firms around that. Lets not cloud our judgement by our personnal hatred for JZ.. Corruption, as they say its a cancer, it has spread to all corners of our society, not juss govt and JZ. Stop this propaganda. We the people domiciled in this great country we have a problem,. you and i.